Last Week Today Episode 202 Show Notes for Monday, June 17th, 2025
A Failed G7 Summit, the Middle East, Ukraine and LA, Doug Ford is Safe, Proposed Federal Tax Cuts, Chinese Funding LA Riots, Where’s the Beef?, DOGE Savings & “Fake” Eggs.
A Failed G7 Summit
As outlined in the June 12th, 2025 Open Canada post, “Canada’s G7 Moment: Articulating the Carney Doctrine in a Fractured World,” the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, was supposed to be Canada’s big moment to flex diplomatic muscle.
Instead, it turned into a mess, and a sideshow, where politicians talk, but can’t act, unless the US decides to participate.
As noted in the June 16th, 2025 Global News post, “Donald Trump leaving G7 summit early because of crisis in Middle East,” the real star of the G7 was always US president Donald Trump. When Trump bailed from the meeting early, claiming he had to tackle “multiple international crises,” talks began to falter.
According to the June 17th, 2025 BBC News post, “Today's G7 is briefly the G6 as Trump leaves partners at the altar,” the event’s final day “feels a bit like a wedding without the bride.”
Trump’s exit allowed him to skip talks with Ukraine’s Zelenskyy and Mexico’s Sheinbaum. Both leaders were invited by Carney to attend the G7. Trump also initially refused to sign a G7 statement urging Middle East de-escalation.
His ominous June 16th, 2025 Truth Social post warning everyone to evacuate Tehran didn’t exactly scream “diplomacy,” although it did grab the headlines.
But while Trump stole the spotlight in Kananaskis, the thousands protesting outside the conference and in major Canadian cities, have barely made the news.
X users in Montreal are noting that the #G7Protests are seemingly calm, and of modest size, although the obvious “black block” protesters are being contained by the local police, who seem to be everywhere.
For an overview of the situation, check out the June 17th, 2025 Global News post, “Trump ditches G7 summit as Israel-Iran conflict escalates. Will US get involved?”
Here’s a more detailed examination of the US and Canadian interactions, courtesy of the June 16th, 2025 Toronto Sun on YouTube post, “LILLEY UNLEASHED: Carney fanboying Trump at G7.”
In essence, Trump maintained his original plan, to spend the day at the G7 and focus on bilateral negotiations rather than group discussions. He hasn’t made a deal with Carney or with anyone else.
Instead he’s gone off to focus on the Middle East, where danger prevails and powerful men are making real deals affecting the world.
As for Canada’s place on the world stage. Carney hasn’t made any deals either, and Carney has nowhere to go after this.
The Canadian legacy media has already begun to dial back its expectations of the G7 summit. As noted in the June 18th, 2025 CBC News post, “What Carney achieved at the G7 after Trump left,” all the Canadian prime minister really needed to do at the G7, at least in retrospect, was to “do no harm.”
That’s quite a comedown from the pre-summit expectations that the event would be Canada’s big moment to flex diplomatic muscle.
Canada’s diplomatic muscle seems to have turned into fanboy flab.
Also in the News this Week
The Middle East, Ukraine and LA
The Middle East is a powder keg, and the G7’s fumble doesn’t help the situation.
Israel’s initial attack on Iran, as outlined in the June 13th, 2025 Institute for the Study of War post, “Iran Update Special Edition: Israeli Strikes on Iran, June 13, 2025, 2:00 PM ET,” began on June 12th, 2025 and targeted both.
…the Iranian nuclear program and regime leadership on June 12 to “degrade, destroy, and remove [the] threat” of Iranian weaponization of its nuclear program. The June 12 to 13 strikes are the opening volley in a weekslong air campaign, according to multiple Israeli officials.
It will be difficult to assess the success or failure of the Israeli air campaign based on these objectives in this early stage.
As noted in the June 13th, 2025 EURACTIV post, “Israel strikes Iran: Nuclear sites hit, Tehran responds with drones,” Tehran’s counterattack began at dawn the next day, initially with drones but later with larger intermediate range missiles.
The June 11th, 2025 Al Jazeera post, “Iran threatens to strike US bases if conflict erupts over nuclear programme, claimed that ”Iran’s defense minister has threatened to drag the US into the conflict and Trump’s early G7 exit was pinned on this.”
Israel is considered to be a nuclear power, capable of lobbing weapons of mass destruction throughout the Middle East to protect its borders and Iran has enough conventional weapons on hand to bomb Israel beck to the stone age in response.
Both are capable of destroying the other, without US intervention and, as outlined in the June 17th, 2025 CBC News on YouTube post, “Israel needs U.S. to destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities, defense expert says,” neither can win a war against the other without US support.
Meanwhile, anti-war protests across Europe and the Middle East are barely a blip in the news. X users using the #StopTheWar call the legacy media too busy hyping G7 drama and missile counts to cover the marchers demanding peace.
But similar levels of increased tensions are growing elsewhere.
In Ukraine, as noted in the June 17th, 2025 Reuters post, “Russia kills at least 16 in strikes on Kyiv, other cities,” a June 17th, Russian missile and drone barrage on Kyiv killed 14 and wounded dozens more.
The legacy media is noting the presence of up to 1700 Canadian-built Roshel Senator APCs operating under Ukrainian command.
For more on that story, check out the March 21st, 2025 Wes O'Donnell on YouTube post, “Canada Sends POWERFUL Roshel Senator APCs to Ukraine.”
But, as outlined in the June 17th, 2025 CBC News post, “Carney pledges $4.3B for Ukraine, adds sanctions condemning Russian 'barbarism',“ Ukraine is still begging for more aid, from Canada and elsewhere, if only because Trump’s early exit from the G7, left Ukraine president Zelenskyy high and dry and mostly unfunded.
Across the border and as noted in the June 17th, 2025 NY Post story, “Trump admin’s 3,000 ICE arrests per day quota is taking focus off criminals and ‘killing morale’: insiders,” the US department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is ramping up to deport 3,000 people daily, targeting cities like Los Angeles.
It’s Trump’s “biggest deportation operation” yet and a centerpiece of his reelection campaign, and it’s got Canada’s border hawks buzzing about bringing Canada border control policies into compliance with American initiatives.
At the G7, Carney floated a US/Canada trade deal with likely included border security issues, but Trump’s exit left details murky and no one currently knows where this initiative will go.
As for coverage of the protests themselves? There’s mostly nothing, although you can find stories on social media if you look.
For more on the ICE protests, check out the June 13th, 2025 JRE clips on YouTube post, “Discussing the ICE Raids, Protests, and Immigration.”
Doug Ford is Safe
Ontario premier Doug Ford was almost robbed over the weekend.
As outlined in the June 17th, 2025 CITY News post, “‘Lawless society’: Doug Ford says masked suspects tried to steal vehicle from his Etobicoke home,” the attempted auto theft was foiled when his security detail noticed the robbery in progress and arrested the perps.
But Ford then did something entirely uncharacteristic of Canada’s ruling class. The next day, he mentioned how lucky to have an onsite security detail to protect his belongings.
Ford also commiserated on the Canadian justice system and wondered what others without security would do in the same situation.
Who knows. Maybe next week he’ll talk about loosening Canadian gun ownership regulations or the limitations under Canadian laws on the use of “reasonable force” to protect individuals and property from intruders.
Here’s Ford’s rant on the topic.
Proposed Federal Tax Cuts
The House of Commons unanimously passed the second reading of the Liberal party’s proposed $5.8 billion income tax cut.
Some like the tax cut but some, like the June 15th, 2025 Rebel News post, “MPs adopt meagre income tax cut for Canadians,” think Canadians need more.
The Liberal plan, which includes a one percentage point reduction in the lowest marginal tax rate, was supported despite opposition MPs indicating they would seek amendments when the bill returns to parliament for its final reading and expected approval.
For more on the differences between the major parties regarding tax cuts, check out the March 24th, 2025 CBC News; The National on YouTube post, “Conservatives, Liberals both pledge middle-class tax cut.”
Chinese Funding LA Riots
The FBI says it is looking into what might be driving the L.A. riots, including the possibility of Chinese funding.
The June 10th, 2025 Western Standard post, “HANNAFORD: California’s costly defiance of U.S. immigration law,” notes that much of what’s going on in LA is dependent on outside funding.
The June 11th, 2025 Juno News post, “Juno Jump Start | Liberal minister dodges questions on illegal immigrant numbers” notes that a similar situation is occurring in Canada.
For more on this story, check out the June 13th, 2025 China in Focus on YouTube post, “CCP-Linked Billionaire Behind Funding of Anti-ICE Protests.”
Where’s the Beef?
The June 6th, 2025 Epoch Times post, “Beef Is Becoming a Luxury Item in Canada,” reports a dramatic surge in beef prices, with striploin up 34.2%, top sirloin 33.7%, and rib cuts nearly 12% since January.
The post notes that “market collusion” in Canada’s beef industry is a growing concern. It suggests that beef packers and food processing companies have conspired to limit beef supply and artificially inflate prices, causing harm to consumers and other businesses.
Cattle herds are shrinking (3.38 million head, lowest since 1989) and transportation costs are rising, but critics point to an “oligopoly of major processors” like JBS and Cargill controlling the supply chain.
As noted in the February 5th, 2025 Reuters post, “JBS to pay $83.5 million in latest beef price-fixing settlement,” recent US investigations into price-fixing by these firms has led to multimillion-dollar settlements, yet Canada’s Competition Bureau remains silent.
For more on this, check out the June 12th, 2025 KPAX-TV on YouTube post, “Cattle producers can seek claims in $83.5 million settlement.”
DOGE Savings
On June 12th, 2025 the US House of Representatives passed their first round of budget cuts, based on recommendations from the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The "DOGE" initiative, spearheaded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, initially aimed for $2 trillion in savings but, as of May 29th, 2025, has claimed a total of only $175 billion in government savings, although the program remains active.
The first DOGE cuts, approved by the US House on June 12, 2025, total $9.4 billion, targeting foreign aid, USAID ($8.3 billion), NPR, and PBS ($1.1 billion).
As outlined in the May 28th, 2025 Axios post, “Trump asking Congress to help with $9.4 billion in DOGE cuts,” the administration was hoping for more publicity on the initiative.
But the announcement of the successful passage of the budget cuts was mostly ignored in the legacy media.
“Fake” Eggs
Finally tonight, here’s the June 14th, 2025 Mongo Minds on Bitchute post, “Fake Eggs.”
It’s a reminder that the technocrats were creating fake food for the masses over one hundred years ago and the food they created wasn’t all that healthy, even then.
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